Roy Porter

Broschiertes Buch

The Greatest Benefit to Mankind

A Medical History of Humanity

Beschreibung

Hailed as "a remarkable achievement" (Boston Globe) and as "a triumph: simultaneously entertaining and instructive, witty and thought-provoking...a splendid and thoroughly engrossing book" (Los Angeles Times), Roy Porter's charting of the history of medicine affords us an opportunity as never before to assess its culture and science and its costs and benefits to mankind. Porter explores medicine's evolution against the backdrop of the wider religious, scientific, philosophical, and political beliefs of the culture in which it develops, covering ground from the diseases of the hunter-gatherers to the more recent threats of AIDS and Ebola, from the clearly defined conviction of the Hippocratic oath to the muddy ethical dilemmas of modern-day medicine. Offering up a treasure trove of historical surprises along the way, this book "has instantly become the standard single-volume work in its field" (The Lancet).

Autor

Roy Porter (1946-2002) was professor of the history of medicine at University College, London. His books include Blood and Guts, The Creation of the Modern World, Flesh in the Age of Reason, and The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: W. W. Norton & Company
• Seitenzahl: 872
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. Oktober 1999
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 235mm x 156mm x 32mm
• Gewicht: 966g
• ISBN-13: 9780393319804
• ISBN-10: 0393319806
• Artikelnr.: 21873332

Rezensionen

'A superb book - fluent, lucid, scary and even funny...essential reading.' Sunday Times

'Magnificently erudite and compellingly humane.' New Statesman (Books of the Year)

'Yet another compulsively readable, astonishingly encyclopaedic book from Roy Porter...his best to date: an epic, one-volume narrative history of man's struggle with the infirmities of his body, from Aesculapius to AIDS.' Simon Schama

'Whether you are interested in the advent of the stethoscope, the history of yellow fever, the bubonic plague or, closer to home, coronary heart disease, the feminist influence on medicine, drug abuse, childbearing or cancer, this book provides the historic background to these and other medical questions..."The Greatest Benefit to Mankind" is a first-class introduction to medical history. Like a well constructed broadsheet leader, it excites thought and discussion, as well as providing many answers.' The Times

'Hypochondriac heaven - a gripping, scholarly, fact-packed, must-have book.' Daily Mail

'A monumental work... magnificent.' Independent on Sunday